DELHI POLICE ARREST 11 FOR CHEATING PEOPLE OF ₹150 CRORE

Eleven people, including a Tibetan woman and 2 CAs based in Delhi and Gurugram, arrested

NEW DELHI: More than half a million Indians were cheated of over ₹150 crore in two months allegedly through an online multilevel marketing (MLM) scheme that was floated by Chinese nationals in connivance with Indian fraudsters, the Delhi Police said on Wednesday. Police said the syndicate offered lucrative returns on the scheme that was being operated through two “malicious mobile applications”. Eleven people were arrested following multiple searches in Delhi-NCR and West Bengal.

NEW DELHI: More than half a million Indians were cheated of over ₹150 crore in two months allegedly through an online multilevel marketing (MLM) scheme that was floated by Chinese nationals in connivance with Indian fraudsters, the Delhi Police said on Wednesday.

Police said the syndicate offered lucrative returns on the scheme that was being operated through two “malicious mobile applications”, Power Bank and EZPlan. Eleven people, including a Tibetan woman and two chartered accountants (CAs) based in Delhi and Gurugram, were arrested following multiple searches in Delhi-NCR and West Bengal since June 2.

The footprint of the syndicate was confirmed in West Bengal, Delhi-NCR, Bengaluru, Odisha, Assam, and Surat, the police said.

Nearly ₹11 crore accumulated by the group was blocked in various bank accounts and online payment gateways that were being operated by the members of the syndicate based in India and China.

Around ₹97 lakh was recovered from one of the arrested chartered accountants, Avik Kedia, who formed over 110 shell companies for Chinese fraudsters to route the money through multiple bank accounts, deputy commissioner of police (cyber crime cell, CyPAD) Anyesh Roy said. DCP Roy said officials from the Cyber Prevention, Awareness & Detection Centre (CyPAD) recently came across several social media posts by people from across the country regarding mobile apps Power Bank and EZPlan that offered to double investments in 24-35 days.

The apps also offered returns on an hourly and daily basis and had investment options starting from ₹300 and going up to several lakhs.

The Power Bank app was available on Google Play Store, while EZPlan app was available on the website www.ezplan.in.

DCP Roy said since messages were inducing people to download these apps, the activity was identified as suspicious and the malware forensic lab of CyPADNCFL was asked to examine the apps. “When analysed, CyPAD officials found that to deceive people, the Power Bank app projected itself as a product of a Bengaluru-based technology start-up. However, the server on which the app was hosted was found to be based in China.

The app was seeking several dangerous permissions such as “access to phone camera”, “read and write to external storage” and “read contact details”,” said Roy. To entice investors, the fraudsters initially gave a small payout amounting to 5%-10% of the invested money.

This made investors believe that the scheme was genuine and they started investing more money as well as sharing the apps with their friends and relatives. Once someone invested a large amount, their account was blocked by the app, thus causing a severe financial loss to the investor, police said.